Sometimes the most simple things bring us a lot of enjoyment. I bought the Brother Home & Hobby PT-65 label printer on a whim at Office Max for $20. I remembered the old-school clamp-style ribbon maker my sisters had; you know, the one with the big ass dial on the top with letters, numbers, and symbols? You’d crank the wheel around, D R F A U L K N, one letter at a time, only to realize that you left out the “e” in DrFaulken and would have to start all over again. Ah, good times. Anyway, I bought this little guy, thinking I’d just label one or two things and then toss it into my office filing cabinet, never to be used again.

I unleashed a labelling maelstrom unlike any our home had ever seen. Not that we see a lot of labelling maelstroms in Virginia, but you know.
The first thing I labelled were our personal filing cabinets, one “DrFaulken” and one “Lady Jaye.” I put printed labels on all of my folders, covering up my chicken-scratch handwriting. I labelled all of our tea cannisters. Lady Jaye printed out a label for Rosie named “Dog” and stuck it the top of her head. Rosie seemed happy about this, but I took the sticker off anyway. I came back from the gym one day to find my Microsoft Wireless mouse had been christened, “Mouse.” I’ve printed labels for my two Xboxes, a plastic bin with all of my cables, and a plastic bin with all of my homeless computer equipment. In a fit of mania, I put labels on CAT5 cables and AC adapters, based on their associated devices. We were a labelling force to be reckoned with.

The Brother PT-65 is powered by 6 AA batteries (not included) and comes with a ribbon cartridge. The unit is easy to use, especially compared to that ol’ clamp-style label maker. The default character entry mode is alpha and lowercase; changes to case is made via the “Caps” button, numbers and some styling options such as underline and “frame” are accessed via the “Code” buttons, located across the bottom on either side. There’s a button for symbols, but I haven’t had the opportunity to use that function yet. There are also eight style options for the one font, and five font sizes.

The “Print” button is isolated to avoid any premature label making, but I do wish the button was a bit larger. It’s about the size of a small jellybean. I also with the backspace key was closer to the QWERTY-style keyboard, I have to hunt for it every time I need it.

I know it’s hokey to be excited about a label maker, but this thing is cheap entertainment at its best. I recently had to buy a replacement cartridge (I discovered the cart that ships with the unit is only half full) — that ran me $8. For less than $30, I’d say this thing is a steal. It also stands a chance at getting you to be a little more organized 😉